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Highlights • Review the Chinese EIP development, modification courses of the standard system, and management mechanism. • Main changes and corresponding reasons among the series of EIP standards. • Shortcomings of the existing standard and outlook of EIP standard development. Abstract Eco-industrial Parks (EIP) have become a central element in China's industrial strategy to combine industrial development while minimizing environmental impacts and improving resource efficiency. National standard system has been developed as a main tool for assessing EIPs. This paper provides a review of the development of China's EIP standard system. The focus of the analysis is the new national demonstration EIP standard (HJ/T274-2015), including a review of calculation methods for some key indicators. The analysis also provides a comparison with previous standards to identify the main changes and improvements in the assessment of EIPs. Comparison findings illustrate that the new standard provides a more consistent indicator system by providing a consolidated standard system, and offering more comprehensive and quantitative indicators. Moreover, the new standard aims to better manage environmental issues by supplementing more comprehensive environmental indicators. The standard also strengthens the emphasis of the industrial symbiosis dimension in the evaluation of EIPs. By offering optional indicators and giving distinct targets based on contextual conditions for a number of indicators, the flexibility and rationality of the EIP assessments are also enhanced. Although many positive changes have been identified, there are still some shortcomings exist in the new EIP standard. The paper proposes a number of recommendations based on analyzing shortcomings, for instance further improving of the industrial symbiosis indicators, offering social benefit evaluation indicators, and strengthening the reduction action evaluation. China's experience of setting EIP standards and indicators may provide lessons for other countries' attempts to develop industrial estate indicators. In order to observe and effectively promote industrial estates at the global range, several remaining research questions that need further exploration are put forward in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: It is important to have insights into the potential sustainability impacts as early as possible in the development of technology. Solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies provide significant environmental, economic, and social benefits in comparison to the conventional energy sources. Because most previous studies of multi‐crystalline silicon (Multi‐Si) PV modules discuss the environmental impacts, this study quantitatively assesses the economic and social impacts of China's multi‐crystalline silicon (mc‐Si) PV modules production stages. The economic analysis is uses life cycle cost analysis, and the social impact analysis is carried out by applying the social index evaluation method. The economic analysis results demonstrate that the main cost of mc‐Si PV modules production in China lies in raw materials and labor and the production of Multi‐Si PV cells have the highest cost among the five manufacturing processes involved in Multi‐Si PV. The result of the social impact analysis reveal that the employment contribution index, S11, is 0.72, indicating that Multi‐Si PV modules production in China has a prominent contribution to employment in comparison with other industries; the labor civilization degree, S12 (i.e., the proportion of mental labor involved in a given job), and labor income contribution index, S13, are both approximately 0.6, indicating that Multi‐Si PV modules production has a less‐significant labor level and income contribution in comparison with other industries; the production capacity contribution index, S14, is merely 0.183, indicating that production of Multi‐Si PV modules does not contribute significantly to the gross domestic product (GDP). Based on the results of these evaluations, some recommendations to improve the economic and social impact of Multi‐Si PV modules production in China are presented, including support for research on polycrystalline silicon production for the purpose of reducing the raw material cost, as well as upgrading manufacturing facilities and implementing the corresponding production training in order to promote the labor civilization degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of a circular economy (CE) has become prominent in both European and Chinese policy making. Chinese and European perspectives on a CE share a common conceptual basis and exhibit many similar concerns in seeking to enhance resource efficiency. Yet they also differ, and this article explores differences in the focus of CE policy in China and Europe. We present evidence on the differing understandings of the CE concept in Chinese and European policy discourse, drawing on qualitative and quantitative analysis of policy documents, media articles, and academic publications. We show that the Chinese perspective on the CE is broad, incorporating pollution and other issues alongside waste and resource concerns, and it is framed as a response to the environmental challenges created by rapid growth and industrialization. In contrast, Europe's conception of the CE has a narrower environmental scope, focusing more narrowly on waste and resources and opportunities for business. We then examine similarities and differences in the focus of policy activity in the two regions and in the indicators used to measure progress. We show differences in the treatment of issues of scale and place and different priorities across value chains (from design to manufacture, consumption, and waste management). We suggest some reasons for the divergent policy articulation of the CE concept and suggest lessons that each region can learn from the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]